Unplugged

Unplugged Plot Summary

Introduction

The Gulfstream jet cuts through clouds at twenty-eight thousand feet, carrying its most reluctant passenger toward an Arkansas wilderness that might as well be the moon. Jett Baranov, son of tech billionaire Vladimir Baranov, stares at his phone one last time before surrendering it to the towering woman with silver eyes and a crew cut. Welcome to the Oasis of Mind and Body Wellness, where technology goes to die and spoiled rich kids go to learn about being whole. But this isn't just another summer camp story. In the sweltering heat of the Arkansas woods, where meditation replaces Instagram and kale shakes substitute for energy drinks, something far more sinister lurks beneath the surface of wellness philosophy. When Jett stumbles upon a tiny lizard in the scalding waters of a natural hot spring, he unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will expose a criminal conspiracy worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The creature they name Needles holds secrets that could destroy everything the Oasis claims to represent.

Chapter 1: The Unwilling Exile: Jett's Arrival at the Oasis

The heat hits Jett like a physical blow when the plane door opens in Little Rock. Arkansas feels like stepping into a hair dryer set on nuclear. Matt Louganis, his twenty-seven-year-old keeper masquerading as a companion, tries to make cheerful conversation about the majestic beauty of the American Southeast. Jett sees only clouds and his approaching doom. Three hours of bone-rattling roads later, they arrive at the Oasis of Mind and Body Wellness. No palm trees, no waterslides, just modest cottages scattered across property that looks more like summer camp than luxury resort. The sign at the entrance might as well read "Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here." Jett's father has found the perfect punishment for a son whose drone nearly shut down San Francisco International Airport. The welcome committee consists of one person: Ivory Novis, six-foot-four of intimidating grace with silver eyes that seem to pierce straight through pretense. Her voice flows like melted caramel as she explains the meditation program, but when she extends her hand, it's not for a handshake. She wants his phone. All technology must be surrendered at the altar of wellness. The only screen he needs, she explains with practiced serenity, is the vast blank slate of his imagination. Matt hands over his devices without protest, but Jett fights like his life depends on it. This isn't lying low, this is exile. When Ivory's iron grip finally liberates his phone, Jett knows he's truly alone. Even his father's money can't reach him in this technology-free purgatory. The dining hall serves something called a veggie burger that makes him gag and spray half-chewed food across the room. Welcome to wellness hell, where even the food is a lie.

Chapter 2: Unlikely Bonds: Team Lizard Forms

The morning ritual called Awakening finds Jett half-asleep on a yoga mat, being dragged upright by Matt while Magnus Fellini leads stretching exercises in a magenta tracksuit. Magnus, the founder of the Oasis, speaks in that special quiet voice of true believers, instructing everyone to reach for the treetops and feel negative energy leaving their bodies. Jett feels nothing except the urge to sleep. Grace Atwater, a twelve-year-old wellness enthusiast who treats the Oasis like sacred ground, watches Jett's pathetic performance with barely concealed disgust. This is her favorite place on Earth, and here's this rich kid treating it like a joke. When she discovers Jett's identity as Vladimir Baranov's son, her contempt only deepens. Money can't buy respect, especially when you're acting like Silicon Valley's Number One Spoiled Brat. Then comes the Bath, a natural hot spring heated by geothermal activity to temperatures that could poach an egg. Two elderly women flee screaming about a horrible lizard trapped in the bubbling water. Grace rushes to investigate and finds a tiny brown creature, no bigger than her hand, struggling against the scalding heat. Without hesitation, she scoops the little reptile to safety, feeling an instant connection to something that needs her protection. The lizard's needle-sharp teeth earn him his name when he bites Grace's finger in gratitude. Needles can't survive in the wild, too small and vulnerable for the Arkansas wilderness. But pets are forbidden at the Oasis, creating an impossible dilemma. Grace makes a choice that will bind four unlikely kids together in conspiracy: she's going to keep him alive, rules be damned.

Chapter 3: Secret Voyages: Escape to Hedge Apple

Tyrell Karrigan, the chronically allergic son of perpetual dieters, becomes an unlikely ally in Project Needles. His parents worship at the altar of Magnus Fellini, but their son sees through the wellness veneer to the simple truth: he misses real food. When Grace and the mysterious Brooklynne Feldman reveal their hidden lizard, Tyrell signs up for the underground railroad of rule-breaking. The shed at the edge of the property becomes Needles' sanctuary, a sweltering hideout where he poses motionless in a paint tray filled with water. But the little carnivore refuses every vegetarian offering from the dining hall. Soy protein, kale, quinoa, all rejected with reptilian disdain. When a palmetto bug the size of a small aircraft stumbles into their path, they discover Needles' true nature: he's a predator who needs meat. Brooklynne knows about a motor launch hidden upriver, and more importantly, she has the key. Her mysterious knowledge of Oasis secrets makes Jett suspicious, but desperation drives them to risk everything. The boat putts against the current toward Hedge Apple, a town so small it barely qualifies for mapmaker's ink. But it has something the Oasis lacks: a barbecue joint serving real food to kids who've forgotten what flavor tastes like. The trip becomes a revelation. Needles devours every scrap of meat they offer, transforming from listless prisoner to enthusiastic predator. But their success comes with complications. Brandon Bucholz, the hulking son of a former NFL player, discovers their secret and demands tribute: three candy bars daily or he exposes their illegal pet to the pathfinders.

Chapter 4: The Missing Piece: Uncovering Ivory's Double Life

Jett's candy smuggling operation turns him into the Oasis black market kingpin, selling contraband sweets at five-dollar markup to kids desperate for real sugar. But his success attracts Ivory's attention. The meditation pathfinder corners him in her darkened office, producing a glowing pen that moves back and forth with hypnotic precision. Her voice takes on that familiar melted-caramel quality as she probes for the truth about his candy supply. Something sinister unfolds in that small room. Jett feels an overwhelming compulsion to confess everything, to pour out his secrets to this woman he despises. Only his father's voice echoing from memory saves him: deny, deny, deny. He bites his tongue hard enough to taste blood, using the pain to break free of whatever spell Ivory weaves with her glowing pen and melodic suggestions. Breaking into Ivory's cottage reveals a woman living far beyond any meditation teacher's means. Designer gowns worth thousands hang in her closet. A restaurant receipt shows ninety dollars spent on prime steak for two. Most damning of all, a leather pouch contains dozens of checks made out to "Friends of the Oasis," each for thousands of dollars from trusting families who believe they're supporting wellness education. But the real revelation comes when Jett spies on one of Ivory's private sessions with Tyrell's father. Hidden in the ventilation system, he watches the meditation pathfinder reduce a grown man to tears with her hypnotic techniques. The glowing pen, the incense mist, the carefully modulated voice all combine to create a state where victims will promise anything to preserve their beloved Oasis. When Tyrell's father writes another check the next day, the pattern becomes clear: Ivory isn't just a fraud, she's running the most sophisticated con game in Arkansas.

Chapter 5: Confrontation: Facing the Truth No One Believes

The mansion outside Hedge Apple rises like a fortress of secrets, its owner known only as "Snapper" to the locals. Jett's investigation leads him to this architectural marvel, so out of place in rural Arkansas that it might have been transported from Beverly Hills. Behind the house, a ramshackle wooden platform covers something that bubbles and moves in the darkness. When Jett falls through the platform, he discovers Snapper's true business: hundreds of alligators confined in pens stretching to the river. The creatures range from fifteen-foot monsters to babies that look exactly like Needles. Everything clicks into place with terrifying clarity. These aren't Louisiana natives, they're livestock in an illegal breeding operation. And the money funding this enterprise comes from Ivory's brainwashed victims at the Oasis. The black Ferrari that roars up the drive carries the ultimate revelation. Snapper isn't some mysterious criminal overlord, but Ivory herself, resplendent in designer evening wear and hiding behind dark sunglasses. The meditation pathfinder who preaches vegetarian purity by day runs an alligator farm by night, financed by the donations she extracts from hypnotized guests. When Jett returns to the Oasis with this impossible truth, his friends think he's lost his mind. Grace dismisses his wild stories as rich-kid delusions. Tyrell, traumatized by witnessing his father's breakdown, refuses to connect the dots. Even Brooklynne, who turns out to be Magnus's secret daughter, can't accept that her father's trusted second-in-command is a master criminal. They offer sympathy instead of action, suggesting Jett needs help rather than demanding justice.

Chapter 6: Liberation: Breaking Free from Deception

Jett loads his remaining fireworks onto the stolen launch and heads upriver one final time. If his friends won't help expose Ivory's crimes, he'll create a distraction loud enough to bring every cop in Arkansas to investigate. The gate separating hundreds of captive alligators from the Saline River becomes his target, wrapped in enough explosive power to blow it wide open. But Ivory's security team captures him before he can trigger the detonator. Dragged into the mansion's elegant interior, he faces the meditation pathfinder without her mask of serenity. She admits everything with casual brutality, explaining how easy it is to part fools from their money when you know which mental buttons to push. The glowing pen appears again, and this time there's no escape from its hypnotic pull. Grace and Tyrell arrive just as Ivory begins her final assault on Jett's mind. They've followed him in a stolen golf cart, finally accepting the truth when they see the alligator farm with their own eyes. Grace's finger finds the detonator Jett dropped during his capture. The resulting explosion shatters windows, ignites the night sky, and blows open the gate that's kept hundreds of alligators imprisoned. Arkansas State Police arrive to find Ivory and her hired muscle trying to recapture three escaping kids. The meditation pathfinder's elegant facade crumbles completely when handcuffs click around her wrists. Her parting words to Magnus reveal the depth of her contempt for everything the Oasis represents. But Jett, bloodied and shaken, defends the man he once mocked as "Nimbus," recognizing authentic goodness when he finally sees it.

Chapter 7: Reconnection: What Truly Matters

The aftermath transforms everyone touched by Ivory's deception. Magnus returns the stolen donations and promises full restitution from the sale of Ivory's assets. Not a single guest chooses to leave early, their faith in the Oasis's mission stronger than their shock at betrayal. The three hundred liberated alligators swim south toward Louisiana's warmer waters, including dozens of babies that look exactly like their former pet. Needles returns to the Oasis one final time, found posing in his signature hunting stance in an abandoned pedal boat. The tiny predator greets Jett with another needle-sharp bite, drawing blood that mingles with tears of recognition. But wisdom earned through crisis shapes the boy's final choice. California pools and artificial habitats can't compete with authentic swampland where alligators belong with their own kind. Matt Louganis quits Fuego to teach English in developing countries, inspired by the Oasis's mission of genuine service over profit. He'll work alongside Jett's mother in Orthodontists Without Borders, trading Silicon Valley ambition for purposeful connection. Even the spoiled rich kid finds himself changed, discovering that friendship and loyalty matter more than money or privilege.

Summary

In the end, the Oasis strips away more than smartphones and social media. It peels back the layers of pretense that insulate wealthy families from authentic human experience. Jett arrives as Silicon Valley's Number One Spoiled Brat and departs as someone who understands that real wealth means having people worth protecting. His father's billions couldn't save him from Ivory's psychological manipulation, but friendship with Grace, Tyrell, and Brooklynne provided the strength to fight back. The wellness center survives its brush with corruption, perhaps stronger for having faced the truth about its own vulnerability. Magnus continues preaching his gospel of mind-body wholeness, now tempered with hard-won wisdom about the difference between authentic purpose and manipulative control. In Arkansas's humid embrace, technology-addicted teenagers discover that the most important connections can't be downloaded or upgraded. They must be earned through loyalty, sacrifice, and the courage to do what's right even when the adults around you have lost their way.

About Author

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Gordon Korman

Korman explores the complexities of youth through engaging narratives that blend humor, adventure, and suspense. His career began serendipitously in seventh grade when a school project evolved into his first book, "This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall", published when he was only 14. This early success foreshadowed a prolific writing journey, during which he authored over 100 books and captivated a global audience with stories that have been translated into more than 30 languages. While initially drawing from his own school experiences for inspiration, Korman expanded his thematic repertoire to include suspense and adventure, as seen in his "Island Trilogy" and the crime-focused "Son of the Mob" series.\n\nHis writing method often involves thorough research, which ensures authenticity and depth in diverse topics such as survival challenges and complex social issues. Korman's ability to craft relatable young protagonists navigating everyday school life and extraordinary adventures has made his books especially appealing to both reluctant and avid readers. His bio reveals a talent for connecting with young audiences, making literature accessible and enjoyable while subtly weaving in themes of friendship and teamwork.\n\nReaders benefit from Korman’s vivid storytelling, which not only entertains but also encourages exploration of personal growth and moral dilemmas. Notable works like the "Swindle" series and contributions to "The 39 Clues" series further showcase his versatility and skill in keeping readers engaged. Over his career, Korman's books have consistently resonated with audiences, earning him spots on "The New York Times" bestseller list and reinforcing his impact on children's and young adult literature.

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